Creative Director

About This Role

This Creative Director role focuses on leading creative strategy and direction for brand, positioning, and campaign programs, grounding work in audience, market, and competitor research. The role involves partnering with Design Directors, Content Strategists, and account teams to ensure creative strategy and visual concepts align, and bringing strategic thinking to win new business. It suits a sharp strategic thinker and natural collaborator who enjoys strengthening others' work and is comfortable in client conversations.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery with clients to understand their business goals, audiences, and the real problem behind the brief
• Run audience, market, and competitor research, and turn it into clear insights the team can act on
• Develop brand positioning, value propositions, brand architecture, brand character, and strategic creative concepts
• Build messaging frameworks and brand narratives, and guide how they come to life across touchpoints
• Shape campaign and content strategy: audiences, key messages, and channels
• Write creative briefs that give the team a clear, inspiring starting point
• Partner with Design Directors and Content Strategists throughout, so the strategy, the visual expression, and the copy strengthen each other
• Partner with Design Directors at key phases to guide designers through concept exploration and development, and lead the design team directly when the project scope calls for it
• Present strategy and recommendations to clients with clear rationale, provide creative reviews, and resolve client feedback
• Bring a strategic view to your accounts, and spot where we can do more for clients
• Partner with Project Managers on scoping and estimates for strategic work
• Partner with Business Development on discovery for new pitches and large opportunities
• Define creative approach, deliverables, timeframe, and resourcing for new pitches
• Lead the strategic thinking in pitches, including research, positioning, and point of view, and present with the pitch team
• Help grow existing accounts into larger brand strategy and campaign work
• Develop proposals that show the breadth of SketchDeck's strategic capabilities
• Contribute to the Creative Impact team's growth, sharing your strategic approach and learning from the team
• Run trainings on brand strategy, research, briefs, and presenting
• Build the decks and materials that present the company's brand strategy services
• Contribute to internal communications, portfolio, and case studies
• Bring ideas to improve how the team works together

Requirements

• 8+ years in brand strategy or strategic creative leadership, including at least 5 in an agency environment